Art of Marketing Conference

This past Monday a few Humber faculty members and marketing students visited the Metro Toronto Convention Center to attend the nationally acclaimed Art of Marketing Conference. The Humber College students attended the event to network with marketing professionals and to remain up-to-date with evolving trends in the industry. Humber College frequently makes these types of opportunities available to students to further expand knowledge and learning outside of the classroom. For example, last semester students were invited to a branding presentation by Martin Lindstrom in downtown Toronto.

The conference is a one-day event which features seven internationally renowned best-selling authors and leaders from across the marketing industry. The speakers share their industry expertise and experience on today’s most critical marketing issues. The Art of Marketing conference attracted a crowd of over 500 individuals, including a number of Humber College graduates. In this blog post I am going to highlight three key overall themes of the event

First, I would like to share the names of the speakers that presented at the conference and their role within the world of marketing. I highly recommend taking some time to research each of these individuals and listen to what they have to say about the future of marketing.

•        Speaker #1: Mitch Joel- President of Twist Image
• ·      Speaker #2: Bryan Pearson- Chief Executive Officer, LoyaltyOne
• ·      Speaker #3: Eric Ryan- Co-founder, Method
• ·      Speaker #4: Youngme Moon- Harvard Business School
• ·      Speaker #5: Scooter Braun- Brand Manager for Justin Bieber
• ·      Speaker #6: Randi Zuckerberg- Head of Marketing at Facebook
• ·      Speaker #7: Martin Lindstrom- Global Branding Expert

 To try and summarize all of the information presented from entire event into one blog post is simply impossible. Instead, I would like to provide you with insight into three themes that truly captured my attention.  

1. The Customer

Having a well-rounded understanding of your customers seems like a very basic skill that every marketer should have… and luckily it is! However, many of the presenters suggested that there is much more to the average consumer than many people realize. Not only do consumers purchase products but they can act as a valuable source of information for your brand. Mitch Joel presented one of the best examples through the explanation of the Amazon Price Check Application. Consumers are able to take a picture of a product while in a retail store and instantly compare the price to the exact product that is being sold online through Amazon at a cheaper price. Amazon is literally placing the ability to instantly comparison shop in the hands of the consumer. Although this may be scary to retailers, it’s a strike of genius for Amazon! Not only has Amazon increased their sales, but also they have gained vast amounts of information from users such as: product information, customer product preferences and even shopping habits, which would be otherwise very costly to acquire.  

2. How different are you, really?

Marketing is all about creating an identity and developing a brand that makes you unique amongst the crowd. Most people associate brands with large corporations, however brands exist at a much smaller levels. For example, you have your own brand and your own set of unique values that people use to identify you. Youngme Moon, challenged everyone to “Take a moment and ask yourself: How different are you, really [than everyone else]?” She suggested that simply because you think that you are different and unique does not actually mean that you are. Youngme suggested that it is essential to look at yourself through the eyes of a neutral party to truly assess your difference.  She used examples of Ikea and Mini Cooper to portray her point as she noted that true success is not dependent upon being better, but that it is dependent upon being different within the eyes of the consumer.

3. Don’t be realistic!

I decided to include the theme of ‘not being realistic’ into the blog as it literally challenges the entire fundamentals of my childhood. Growing up, I was constantly told to be realistic in my views. As many other children, I dreamed of big and magical things; however, reality slowly kicked in and my views began to plateau into a sea or normalness. Scooter Braun boldly said to stop! Scooter suggests that being realistic will limit you from your full potential and achieving all that you could. He says that it is important to shoot and dream as far as you can and work as hard as it takes to get there… he promises that if you try your best, even if you don’t succeed, you will be happier within life.

Overall, the event was absolutely amazing. The information provided by all of the speakers was extremely insightful and powerful. I highly recommend attending a future Art of Marketing conference, or simply researching the works of the featured speakers to gain an insight into the future of marketing. I would like to end by extending a very special thank you to Humber College for letting me attend this event!

I would like to leave you with a quote from Scooter Braun and a short video highlighting the Art of Marketing.

“ Everyone will say that you are a dreamer and a failure when what you are doing is not working… but when you hit it, they will call you a genius”- Scooter Braun 

Promotional Video, The Art of Marketing - Toronto - March 5th, 2012 http://youtu.be/QgB5WtwQd0E

- Tim